A Infraestrutura como Referencial para o Ordenamento do Território

Abstract

This research seeks to study and deepen the impact of infrastructure elements as producers and organizers of land use patterns. The aim of the research is to develop a methodological tool capable of meeting the new challenges of urbanization processes - based on the relationship and adequacy of infrastructure in relation to existing or planned building (urban load). This methodological approach, motivated by the intense spreading of infrastructure seems timely, especially in the current context of economic crisis, demographic shrinking and shortage of resources at the municipal level. Moreover, the increasing cost of energy and the constraints of property owners (in terms of limited credit access), seem to highlight the challenge of urban sprawl qualification, particularly in terms of strategies for infrastructure provision and management. The main purpose is to reestablish infrastructure as the fundamental, though not exclusive, reference of the planning system. This perspective, which has informed and guided the action of several planning instruments for a long time, was gradually abandoned (contributing to the fragility of recent processes of occupation), despite the unusual period of density and complexity of infrastructure and the broad consensus about its structuring potential. To this end, it is necessary to overcome the segmented logic that marks the design and provision of infrastructures, and propose integrated levels of infrastructure, which must change according to the relationship with the expected or existing building and context.